Other lawyers

Licensed conveyancers have spoken out against their regulatory body’s bid to expand its regulatory reach to litigation and advocacy services. However, they support it looking to regulate will-writing and estate administration .

A volume conveyancing business owned by Britain’s fourth largest building society is targeting a move into other areas of legal services after receiving its alternative business structure (ABS) licence.

Accountants should be excluded from Legal Services Board plans to reserve will-writing and estate administration, their professional body has argued. Meanwhile, it is not yet clear whether the SRA will be allowed to regulate will-writers.

The reservation of will-writing and estate administration should boost the amount of work and allow existing providers such as solicitors to become more competitive, the Legal Services Board said today as it laid out how the regime will work.

A proposed £50,000 cap on compensation claims against alternative business structures licensed by the Intellectual Property Regulation Board is too restrictive, it has been argued as the board prepares to become an ABS licensing authority.

A will-writer is planning to use his new alternative business structure (ABS) licence to expand into the conveyancing market, Legal Futures can report. Further, an IFA is planning a specialist multi-disciplinary ABS with a law firm focusing on the over-55s.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales needs to abide by the spirit of the legal services reforms if it is to regulate probate work, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has urged.

Claims management companies (CMCs) face the prospect of having to provide financial compensation to unhappy customers after the government announced today that they are to come within the remit of the Legal Ombudsman.

One of the country’s leading non-solicitor probate providers will today be unveiled as the newest alternative business structure. Kings Court Trust has chosen to be regulated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers.

Claims management companies saw a 33% increase in turnover to £774m last year, but standards are plummeting as they “fall over each other” to bring payment protection insurance mis-selling claims, their regulator has reported.

The High Court has ordered the Council for Licensed Conveyancers to consider £2.3m claims for compensation after it overturned an internal decision that the CLC was unable to make any grants at all.

A will-writing and probate services company in Birmingham has become the latest alternative business structure, and only the second licensed by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers.

Around 100 firms of accountants are expected to become alternative business structures, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales said today as it unveiled its draft application to become a regulator of legal work.

The Legal Ombudsman is going too far in proposing to allow prospective clients and third parties to complain about lawyers, the Law Society has claimed. Chancery Lane found support from the Council for Licensed Conveyancers.

North East Trading Standards Association has joined forces with the Law Society to warn consumers about unregulated will-writers mis-selling wills and delivering reserved legal activities.